The adventures of a wannabe barbie stuck in the 1950's

Kinn Thai Canberra

Kind Thai is a fairly new restaurant situated in the Canberra Centre restaurant strip on Bunda Street. It took over the spot that once was Wagamama. I believe that Kinn Thai is part of some kind of chain of restaurants.

I recently went there for a group dinner to catch up with a lot if my friends whom I hadn’t seen in a while. Asia. Food restaurants are generally good for catchups with large groups because of the casual and relaxed dining, the variety of options, the speed of service and of course the price point is always good. It was definitely a good choice for a group of 16 people!

I really liked that the menu was available online to look at before dining, because unfortunately gluten free people like myself have to see what options there are before dining. Otherwise we are often left surprised or unprepared (mentally, money wise and even left feeling hungry!)

I knew before I was even having dinner that I would be having the Pad Thai – it’s one of my favourite dishes and I struggle to make it properly at home, so it’s always a nice treat to get a delicious Pad Thai dish when eating out.

We were seated near the entrance Of the restaurant where a few large tables had been moved together. I think they did the best the could to seat us. They were fairly attentive by giving us water and asking if we wanted drinks, however I felt rushed when it came to making my order – they seemed pretty keen to get us in and out very quickly! I don’t think it really mattered though because we all just ended up pretty quickly. A few other people also ordered the chicken Pad Thai after hearing that I was ordering it.

I also ordered an entree and being Asian food I expected good value for money, but unfortunately, my entree was just one bite. One prawn. On a leaf. It would have been nice if the wait staff told my when ordering that it is a small entree, because I would have ordered more!

The food came out sporadically but it was pretty quick inbetween each dish being brought out so we were essentially all fed at once. Two of my friends had the great idea of sharing dishes with some steamed rice on the side. If I was to go back to Kinn Thai this is definitely what I would do – it’s a sharing kind of environment and that way you can fill your tummies up pretty quickly!

The only problem was that when my friend started eating her Pad Thai, she noticed a nice long strand of black hair matted into the dish. She was not going to say anything and was just going to put the dish aside because she could no longer eat it. However, my other friend knew this was not acceptable and walked up to the counter with the dish to show them. Before she even said anything the wait staff said “oh, there’s a hair in there, isn’t there?”

All I could think is: wow…Seriously? If you know that there will be a hair in someone’s dish then it shows that there are some serious problems with the hygiene practice in the establishment. They offered to make another one, which they did, but my friend could no longer touch that food without feeling sick. When it came to paying for the food, my friends had to make sure that they were not being charged for that dish, whilst it was something that just should have been taken off the total bill.

The restaurant itself is quite large, and it looks like it is best for large gatherings or group dinners. I wouldn’t recommend coming here as a couple or just with one or two friends as it seems like it is more of a group restaurant place. It is licensed as well as BYO, and from memory corkage was around $3 each, which is pretty reasonable when I brought along my $5 Aldi Moscato to drink! (Which I highly recommend because that Moscato is delish!)

Overall I was a little disappointed. There had been a bit of hype about this new restaurant but I don’t really think it was worth all the talk – it’s just another Asian restaurant in an already crowded market. It offered nothing new to me and the experience was not a good one.

Vintage Barbie

Vintage Barbie (also known as Simone) is a twenty-something paralegal based in Canberra, Australia. She is a lover of polka dots, pastels and pearls. Simone loves to cook for her family, share her travel stories and of course talk about fashion!

Follow Blog via Email

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.